Can you imagine brushing your teeth without toothpaste?

There are certain things that must be done each and every day like brushing your teeth. If you think about the technology in tooth brush, there have been developments from manual brush to more automated type brushes that provide different type of rotatory motion to the brush. Although, automatic brushes is significant development, but still these brushes use toothpaste to clean your teeth. Yet another innovation has been in development from last 15 years, which would not require you to use tooth paste during brushing your teeth.

Shiken, a Japanese company, came out with a solar-powered tooth brush 15 years ago, which was reported in the Journal of Clinical Periodontology. Are you wondering why are we talking about it now? Shiken came up with another model of this solar-powered tooth brush, the Soladey-J3X, which is supposed to packs twice the chemical punch compared to the original version.

How does solar-powered toothbrush work?The solar tooth brush contains a titanium dioxide rod in the neck of the brush, just below the nylon bristles. Here is how it works:

When light shines on the wet rod, releases electrons.

The electrons react with acid in the mouth, which helps break down plaque.

No toothpaste is required.

It won’t work in the dark, though – the brush needs about as much...

light as a solar-powered calculator would to operate.

What is the ongoing research on solar toothbrush?Shiken has collaborated with researchers at the University of Saskatechewan dentistry professor emeritus Dr. Kunio Komiyama, who has a role in development of the brush and his colleague Dr. Gerry Uswak. The plan includes testing the light powered toothbrush on 120 teens. The study will require teens to spend somewhat extra time with dentist for follow up inspection.

Solar toothbrush has been tested in the lab on cultures of two types of bacteria which are major culprits in periodontal disease. Komiyama said that “You see complete destruction of bacterial cells.

It may sound strange that you will not be using toothpaste to brush your teeth, I correlate it to electric shavers that do not require you to put shaving cream. I hope that the results for the solar-powered toothbrush turnout positive and would hit the market soon.